There are literally hundreds of thousands of office buildings and other commercial property located in the United States and throughout the world (hereinafter “commercial properties”). And, because most businesses and commercial properties are required to operate during the day, they typically need substantial electrical energy during the daytime hours to provide power for utilities, including lighting, heating, cooling, etc. This is particularly true with heating and cooling requirements, such as during the extreme winter and extreme summer months, wherein the energy needed to maintain a comfortable work environment can be relatively high.
These peak demands can place a; heavy burden on utility plants and grids that supply electrical power to commercial properties. Utility plants and grids often have to be constructed to meet the highest demand periods, which means that during the low demand periods, they will inevitably operate inefficiently, i.e., at less than peak efficiency and performance. This may be true even if the peak demand periods occur during only a small fraction of the time each day. Failure to properly account for such high demand periods, such as by over-designing the facilities to meet the peak demands, can result in the occurrence of frequent power outages and failures. Also, a failure in one area of the grid can cause tremendous stress and strain in other areas, wherein the entire system can fail, i.e., an entire regional blackout can occur.
These demands can also place expensive burdens on commercial property owners and operators. Utility companies often charge a significant premium on energy consumed by commercial properties during peak demand hours. This practice is generally based on the well known principles of supply and demand, e.g., energy costs are higher when demand is high, and less when demand is low. And because most commercial property owners are forced to operate during the day, they are most often forced to pay the highest energy costs during the highest demand periods.
Utility companies also charge for energy during peak demand periods by assessing a penalty or surcharge (hereinafter “demand charge”) on the maximum rate of consumption that occurs during a predetermined period, such as a one month period. A demand charge may be assessed, for example, based on the maximum “peak” rate of consumption that occurs during the period, wherein the demand charge can be assessed regardless of how short the peak “spike” or “surge” during that period is, and regardless of what rate may have applied immediately before and after the spike or surge. This demand charge can also be assessed regardless of the average consumption rate that may have otherwise been in effect during the period, which could be considerably lower than the peak. Even if the overall average rate of use is substantially lower, the demand charge can be based on a much higher peak spike or surge experienced during that period.
These pricing practices are designed to help utility companies offset and/or recover the high cost of constructing utility power plants and grids that are, as discussed above, designed to meet the peak demand periods. They also encourage commercial property owners and operators to reduce energy consumption during peak periods, as well as to try to find alternative sources of energy, if possible. Nevertheless, since most commercial property owners and operators must operate their businesses during the day, and alternative sources of energy are not always readily available, they often find themselves having to use energy during the highest rate periods. Moreover, because energy consumption rates can fluctuate, and surges and spikes can occur at various times, potentially huge demand charges may be applied.
Utility companies and other providers of energy have, in the past, implemented certain time-shifting methods, wherein energy supplied during low demand periods are stored, and then used later during peak demand periods. These methods typically involve storing energy, and then using that energy later, to supplement the energy provided by the grid. This theoretically enables more energy to be consumed when energy costs are low, and less energy to be consumed when energy costs are relatively high, thereby potentially reducing the higher rate costs.
Several such energy storage methods have been used in the past, including compressed air energy storage systems, such as underground caverns. Thus far, however, one of the main disadvantages of such systems is that they are relatively energy inefficient. For example, compressed air energy systems have a tendency to lose a significant portion of the energy that is stored, so that the energy used from storage ends up actually costing more than the energy that was stored. These inefficiencies can make it so that the economic incentives to install energy storage systems of this kind are significantly reduced.
Even though there are some advantages to such energy storage systems, the added costs associated with installing and operating such systems can become a financial burden, especially at the end-user level. Accordingly, commercial property owners and operators that use energy often have difficulty justifying the cost of installing and using such systems. Moreover, because of the expense of installation, they may have difficulties obtaining financing and approval, e.g., to attract investors and/or lenders to spend the money needed to develop and install such a system, because they often doubt whether they will be able to recoup the costs.
A method and system is needed, therefore, that can be used by individual end-users of energy or commercial property owners and operators to control and regulate the end-user consumption of energy from the power grid, so that more energy can be consumed during low-cost, low-demand periods, and less energy can be consumed during high-cost, high-demand periods, to achieve not only a reduction in overall demand and reducing the spikes and surges that can occur during peak demand periods, but to reduce the overall stress and strain on the power grid, and provide a means of forecasting the cost savings that can be achieved over an extended period of time, which can justify the cost and expense of installing and operating the system, thereby making the system more widely used.